MIAMI (CBSMiami) – National unemployment numbers continued to trend lower in November showing solid job creation heading into the final month of 2013.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate dropped from 7.3 percent to 7.0 percent in November. The 0.3 percent drop was powered by 203,000 new nonfarm jobs created in the last month.

Overall, the labor force grew by 455,000 in November, the employment numbers grew by 818,000, and the number of unemployed fell by 365,000. Those numbers confirm the unemployment rate fell despite the labor force growing.

The number of short-term unemployed workers (less than five weeks) declined by 300,000 in November while the number of long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks or more) remained unchanged and accounted for 37.3 percent of the unemployed workers in the nation.

The 7.0 percent unemployment rate is the lowest the nation has seen since November 2008, roughly two months after the bottom completely fell out from under the economy during the crash of Lehman Brothers.